Abbas Ahmad Atwi ( ar, عباس أحمد عطوي; born 12 September 1979) is a Lebanese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

. Making his debut for Lebanon in 2002, Atwi was the all-time most capped player for his country with over 80 international caps, before being surpassed by

Hassan Maatouk Hassan Ali Maatouk ( ar, حسن علي معتوق, ; born 10 August 1987) is a Lebanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Ansar and captains the Lebanon national team. Known for his pace and technical skills, Maa ...

in 2020; he played for the national team for over 13 years, until his final match in 2016.

Club career

Atwi grew up in the

Zuqaq al-Blat Zuqaq al-Blat ( ar, زقاق البلاط) is one of the twelve quarters of Beirut. Etymology Zoqaq al-Blat literally means "the cobbled alley", this was a colloquial name given to the street extending from the old city to the Qantari hill and ...

quarter of Beirut; he began playing football in the streets aged six. He joined

Nejmeh Nejmeh Sporting Club ( ar, نادي النجمة الرياضي, lit=The Star Sporting Club) is a football club based in Manara, a district in Ras Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, that competes in the . The club was established in Beirut in 1945, and ...

on 5 December 1997, and scored 114 goals in over 500 matches in his 10-year stay. In 2012, Atwi was sent on loan for a few months to

Dubai Club Dubai Cultural Sports Club () was a football club based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In 2017 merged with Al Shabab to join Al-Ahli to rebrand the club into Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai FC. History The club was relegated in 2007 to the UAE ...

in the United Arab Emirates. Atwi terminated his contract with Nejmeh on 18 January 2017, due to problems with the technical staff. In summer 2017 Atwi joined Shabab Arabi, before moving to Shabab Sahel on 4 January 2018, scoring four goals and making five assists in his first season. On 17 July 2020, Atwi re-joined Nejmeh on a two-year deal. On 2 September 2021, Atwi moved to Akhaa Ahli Aley on a free transfer; aged 42, he became the oldest Lebanese player to sign for another club. According to the

International Federation of Football History & Statistics The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

(IFFHS), Atwi was the fourth-oldest player (and oldest outfield player) to play a match in the top tier of a national championship in 2022, aged in his last

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, ...

game in 2022 against Sporting on 17 May. He left Akhaa in summer 2022.

International career

In 2002, Atwi played for the Lebanon Olympic team at the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games ( ko, 2002년 아시아 경기대회/2002년 아시안 게임, Icheoni-nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheoni-nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the XIV Asian Games ( ko, 제14회 아시아 경기대회/제14회 아시안 � ...

, scoring a goal in an 11–0 win against

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. He made his senior debut for

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

in a match against

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in 2002. Atwi played in the

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Atwi played his last international match in 2016.

Personal life

Atwi is not related to fellow Lebanese footballer

Abbas Ali Atwi Abbas Ali Atwi ( ar, عباس علي عطوي; born 15 December 1984), also known as Onika ( ar, أونيكا, links=no, also spelled Unica), is a Lebanese football coach and former player who is team manager of club Bourj. Club career Atw ...

, who is also known as Onika.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Lebanon's goal tally first.''

Honours

Nejmeh *

: 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2008–09, 2013–14 *

Lebanese FA Cup The Lebanon Cup (), commonly known as the Lebanese FA Cup, is a Lebanese football annual cup competition. The first edition, held in 1937, was won by Nahda. The most successful club in the competition is Ansar with 15 titles, followed by Nejmeh ...

: 2015–16; runner-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Lebanese Elite Cup The Lebanese Elite Cup () is a Lebanese football annual cup competition contested by the top six teams of the previous Lebanese Premier League season. Founded in 1996 as the Super League Cup, the first edition was contested by the top five finish ...

: 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2014, 2016,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Lebanese Super Cup The Lebanese Super Cup () is Lebanese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Lebanese Premier League season and the holders of the Lebanese FA Cup. If the Lebanese Premier League champions also won the Lebanese FA ...

: 2000, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2016; runner-up:

Shabab Sahel *

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual * Lebanese Premier League Best Player: 2005–06, 2013–14 *

Lebanese Premier League Team of the Season The Al-Manar Football Festival () was an event organised by the Al-Manar television station between the 1996–97 and 2018–19 seasons in order to award players, managers, referees and teams who were considered to have performed the best over ...

: 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2013–14 * Lebanese Premier League Best Goal: 2006–07 *

Lebanese Premier League top assist provider The Al-Manar Football Festival () was an event organised by the Al-Manar television station between the 1996–97 and 2018–19 seasons in order to award players, managers, referees and teams who were considered to have performed the best over ...

: 2006–07, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2013–14

References

External links

*
Abbas Ahmad Atwi
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Atwi, Abbas Ahmad 1979 births Living people Lebanese footballers People from Bint Jbeil District Men's association football midfielders Nejmeh SC players Dubai CSC players Ansar Al Mawadda SC players Shabab Al Sahel FC players Akhaa Ahli Aley FC players Lebanese Premier League players UAE Pro League players Lebanon men's youth international footballers Lebanon men's international footballers Asian Games competitors for Lebanon Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games Lebanese expatriate footballers Lebanese expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate footballers in the United Arab Emirates